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Honestly, I think I'd rather be in desperate financial straits on my own. That wasn't how I felt before this past weekend. I thought that Barry was helping: looking for bargains, making dinner, even running to food pantries (which is how bad our situation is). But now I have to wonder how much money he was siphoning off for things we can't afford: cigarettes, chips, soda. Maybe our finances aren't even that bad; maybe he's just been misspending too much money. But it's exhausting to have to police him on top of everything else I do. Plus, I don't really trust that he's doing that much as far as job hunting. First and foremost, he absolutely needs to be working, whether or not I leave or kick him out.
At least on my own, I would know exactly who was handling money well or fucking it up. I would not have to discover that someone who was allegedly helping me was actually doing harm. I felt a lot of love in pitching in together in this very bad situation, and absolutely heartbroken that he was actually working against me. And it's not just the cigarettes or the money or the lying: it's also that I'm the one who would get to nurse him through emphysema or lung cancer. It's spending money we don't have on something very harmful. I quit a cigarette habit twice as bad as his -- I smoked twice as much -- and it's been six years. I'm not asking for something I wouldn't and didn't do myself.
I was really, finally feeling settled into this marriage, feeling a lot of love and appreciation despite a lot of lacks and problems (like no sex for many years), but now I really want out. I want to be responsible for myself, period.
Of course, the big problem here is that there's no way to separate. We have one reasonably priced apartment and one job. I'll be trying to set aside money to move, although it's really not my preference, but he has no income and can't really stay alone or move. (I'm not close to being that mean.) So we're stuck together for the time being, which is really awkward. I might even consider staying together in the apartment if he gets a job, and has some of his own fucking money to waste.
Barry is in denial. He met me at the subway yesterday, which he had been doing some in better times, and I asked, "What are you doing here?" He said, "I came to meet you. What's wrong?" I said, "I'm trying to decide whether or not I can continue to live under the same roof with you." So he turned and walked home, then got into bed. Didn't get up to make dinner or anything else. He takes to bed when there's something he doesn't want to deal with.
I guess there's not much else to say at this point. I'm going to Jannah's for a weekend a week from tomorrow. All of these discussions with St. Ann's people are depressing me dreadfully. Some of them want to meet. But as much as they share the problems they had at the school and their feelings of worthlessness, they're all achieving now and I'm not. These are not friends I want. I don't need any help feeling bad about myself. And I really wish they would all stop asking if I still write poetry. Considering the fact that Emmett Jarrett, the teacher who edited the literary magazine, only saw fit to publish one of my poems in all those years (and it wasn't even one I considered one of my best), I can't imagine how these people identify me as someone who wrote poetry. Everyone wrote poetry at that school, and a lot of them still do. It's been many years since I even tried...in the early 90s, I may have tried my hand at some song lyrics, but that went nowhere.
At least on my own, I would know exactly who was handling money well or fucking it up. I would not have to discover that someone who was allegedly helping me was actually doing harm. I felt a lot of love in pitching in together in this very bad situation, and absolutely heartbroken that he was actually working against me. And it's not just the cigarettes or the money or the lying: it's also that I'm the one who would get to nurse him through emphysema or lung cancer. It's spending money we don't have on something very harmful. I quit a cigarette habit twice as bad as his -- I smoked twice as much -- and it's been six years. I'm not asking for something I wouldn't and didn't do myself.
I was really, finally feeling settled into this marriage, feeling a lot of love and appreciation despite a lot of lacks and problems (like no sex for many years), but now I really want out. I want to be responsible for myself, period.
Of course, the big problem here is that there's no way to separate. We have one reasonably priced apartment and one job. I'll be trying to set aside money to move, although it's really not my preference, but he has no income and can't really stay alone or move. (I'm not close to being that mean.) So we're stuck together for the time being, which is really awkward. I might even consider staying together in the apartment if he gets a job, and has some of his own fucking money to waste.
Barry is in denial. He met me at the subway yesterday, which he had been doing some in better times, and I asked, "What are you doing here?" He said, "I came to meet you. What's wrong?" I said, "I'm trying to decide whether or not I can continue to live under the same roof with you." So he turned and walked home, then got into bed. Didn't get up to make dinner or anything else. He takes to bed when there's something he doesn't want to deal with.
I guess there's not much else to say at this point. I'm going to Jannah's for a weekend a week from tomorrow. All of these discussions with St. Ann's people are depressing me dreadfully. Some of them want to meet. But as much as they share the problems they had at the school and their feelings of worthlessness, they're all achieving now and I'm not. These are not friends I want. I don't need any help feeling bad about myself. And I really wish they would all stop asking if I still write poetry. Considering the fact that Emmett Jarrett, the teacher who edited the literary magazine, only saw fit to publish one of my poems in all those years (and it wasn't even one I considered one of my best), I can't imagine how these people identify me as someone who wrote poetry. Everyone wrote poetry at that school, and a lot of them still do. It's been many years since I even tried...in the early 90s, I may have tried my hand at some song lyrics, but that went nowhere.
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